RWBY - The Knights of Remnant
by K4zuk1
Summary: Ever heard of the fairy tale called the Knights of Remnant? There are four knights each one from the four kingdoms of Remnant. They are King Arthur of Vale, Robin Hood from Vacuo, Ares from Atlas, and Susanoo from Mistral. These knights were known for their battle prowess. Recognized by the Brother Gods, they tasked the knights to protect Remnant in their darkest days.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY. I only own my OCs

Prologue

? POV

Cold.

This is what my body feels like before I open my eyes, but I see nothing. Everywhere around me is nothing but pitch black. I also feel my body being dragged under, my ears are clogged, and most of all I can't breathe. When I start moving I can hear swishes of water synchronizing with my movements. Without thinking, I desperately try to pull myself up but no matter what I do, I'm still sinking. Almost losing my breath I resign to my fate. With my head down, I can see that there are these strips of shadows clinging onto my torso. The more I go under, more of these strips seem to wrap around my body. The touch is gentle and comforting but I find it disturbing, like I didn't belong with it, like I belong somewhere else. Then I hear a voice, calling out to me from above. I look up and saw a small light, twinkling. The voice is telling me to reach out to it, to escape this darkness around me.

"Is this really what you want?" The voice says,

"Just because you are in the shadows means you cannot be part of the light?"

"Do not deny your heart."

"I can feel it."

"The desire to reach and escape from this fate."

I try reach out to the light but my lungs are failing me. Then my eyes betray me.

My eyes open once again; with my head down, I see the ground. The sand illuminates orange and is coated with a thick red liquid. On top of it is a corpse; his eyes and mouth wide open with blood pouring out. A great sword pins down on the corpse with my hand on its handle. The blade has a metallic black color; half of it is stained with blood. The blood is dry and it stuck on the blade, I can smell it's horrible stench on it, for some reason it invigorates me. The other half remains polished; I can see the reflection of the fires the blade was made out of. Only the fires came from a nearby settlement in ruins. There are other settlements as well, similar to the first one. I can hear screams of agony, wrath, and sorrow up ahead.

"IT'S THE GRIMM KNIGHT!"

"HE'S HERE!"

"THE LEGENDS ARE TRUE!"

"RUN!"

Humans and Faunus are running, scattering themselves towards three exits of the burning village. Most of them escaping towards the exit in front of me, some leaving the village using the exit on the right, and I see very few of them trying the exit on the left as a swarm of black creatures enters the village, destroying everything in their path. There are a variety of them to be exact. On some parts of their body are bones sticking out of them like spikes or rocks. They all have a skull masking their bright red eyes and fitting the figure of their head. I begin to move south, leaving the village burning to ashes with the great sword in hand. As I walk through a forest south of the blazing settlements, I stop to raise my sword in front of me and look at my reflection. I can't see my face because it is covered with a black knight's helm. The opening that my eyes can see through is very thin and it glows blood red. Now that I mention it, my whole body is covered in black armor and it spews black flames, but they don't feel hot. It feels rather cold. The armor is thin making it very light for me to move swiftly but at the same time not very durable against strong attacks. I don't worry about it though; the shadowy flames make up for it as they act like a barrier. I begin to move again towards the direction of a black oval. It spews the same black flames my armor has and appears to be pulsing as if it's telling to me to go through.

 **BANG**

Before I can make contact with the dark oval, I hear a shot ringing out and a tiny burning metal on the grass. If it weren't for the shadows, my armor would have a small dent. I look back to see four humans. Half of them are men, and the other half are women. One of the men steps forward with a cane on his hand. He appears to be middle aged and has a mop of silver hair. He is wearing dark spectacles on his eyes and a dark green cowl with a cross-shaped pin on it on his neck. He also wears a black suit over his buttoned vest and a green shirt, along with black trouser shoes and long dark green pants.

"The Grimm Knight." He calls me, he looks to his companions and commands them, "Restrain him."

The other man and one of the women dash forward with swords in hand. The man has graying, black spiky hair, dull red eyes, and stubble of hair on his chin. He wears a red tattered cloak with a grey dress shirt that has a long tail, along with black dress pants, and black dress shoes. His sword is a single-edged great sword that has markings along the middle of the blade. The blade itself has a small space in between metals. On the hilt of his sword is a mechanism that helps the man collapse his weapon. The woman has wild, raven black hair and red eyes. She wears a shallow cut black and red dress with five necklaces that consists of beads. She also wears a girdle belt and a pair of matching red gauntlets. She wields a long, single-edged red katana. Her metal scabbard contains a rotary chamber filled with various types of dust. They both swing at me simultaneously. I block them with my large great sword and swing with all my strength creating a wave of gale against them, causing the man and woman to slide back. They are unimpressed and the man with the cane does not flinch. I growl at them and I clench my left armored fist. The man dash forward to me yet again and slashes against me multiple times, each one after the other always aims for an opening as I block his attacks effortlessly; each time we counter each other, our blows pulls us apart until our feet pushes us back into a lock, using my head, I literally bash it forward against his forehead making him clutch his head in pain. He retaliates by activating the mechanism on his sword, changing it into a form of a gun. He shoots but I pay him no mind and let the shadow absorb the bullets and spit it out the next second. I pay attention to the man with a cane and the woman who has yet to make a move. The final woman has light blonde hair tied up in a bun and wears glasses not shaded like the man beside her. She wears a white, long sleeved, pleated top that has a wide keyhole neckline and gauntlet cuffs that flare in pleats on her wrists. She also wears a black high-waisted pencil skirt and black brown stockings. From what I can see she doesn't have a weapon but she holds a riding crop with her right hand. I notice that one of them is missing. Then I can feel something creeping behind me. The raven-haired woman ambushes me from behind; using the opening from the man I bashed my head to while he was distracting me. She stabs me on my right shoulder and dislocates it. I can't move nor feel my arm anymore. It hurts that I let out a scream, a cry for help.

"We must end this quickly!" the man with the cane says, "The Grimm will be here at any moment." The other three nods at his statement. The woman who stabbed me is still attached with her sword on my shoulder. I reach behind my back to grab her and yank her out but she pulls out her sword and backs away before I can do so. I shout out a war cry at them. Even though I can't use my right arm doesn't mean I'm useless with my left. I hold my great sword on my left hand, then harshly throwing it at the man with the cane and the blonde-haired woman, creating another gale of wind. I dash closely behind my sword as it cuts through the air; I prepare to do a left cross against the both of them. Before my sword and myself can touch them from mere millimeters away, a force stops us from getting any closer. My body and sword begins to glow purple and we are sent back to a tree behind me, with my sword impaling me onto it. I cannot make a loud noise this time because as I breathe, little by little, gravity pulls me to the ground, threatening to split me apart. To prevent myself from moving too much, I grit my teeth and clench my fists together. While I endure my suffering, the feeling of anger rises within me. I can tell they can sense my wrath upon them when the blonde woman inflicts a thousand more wounds onto me. There are these speckles of purple splintering me. These speckles turn out to be small pieces of wood from the trees affected by the gales of wind I caused. The speckles are in the command of the blonde-haired woman. By waving her riding crop around, these speckles move under her will.

'Does she really think this can stop me?'

'No.'

'I won't let this be the end of me!'

'Mother… is waiting for me!'

By yanking my arm from the tree and pulling out my sword and the rest of my body, massive amounts of my blood bleed down to the grass, only they aren't red, they are pitch black like the one from my dream. That doesn't matter right now because what matters is what causes me to bleed. I run towards the group, tackling the man and woman with swords and swinging them across to the left using my great sword. The blonde woman steps forward in front of the man with the cane in an attempt protect him using her power to move objects, using that power against me. But I resist it, no matter how much she wants to make a great distance between the man and myself; I stay in place, struggling with all my might just to crush her and her companion. The woman begins to show signs of weakness from using her power too much. She calls out to the man she's protecting,

"Professor Ozpin I can't hold him for much longer! Whatever it is you must do, you must do it immediately!"

The man then takes a few steps toward me, raising his hand and places it on my chest. His hand begins to glow green and I can feel my body tearing apart. He slowly pulls his hand back, and a shadowy figure is being pulled apart from me.

"GAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

"GRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!"

I hear myself screaming and one other but it doesn't come from the group of two men and two women. I can only assume that it comes from the shadowy figure in front of me.

The pain stops.

The light the man has placed upon me, and the shadows in front of me are no longer visible. Only a figure remains from the shadows that disappeared.

"What have you done?!" the figure exclaims as I lay on the grass flinching at its sharpness then welcoming it. There isn't much I can do at this point. I can't move my body; only feel my blood pouring out of it. I look to the side and see that this time my blood is red, just like the corpse I left in the village, and I am no longer wearing a pitch-black armor but a white tattered shirt and black shorts. The figure runs to my direction, he raises his hand to reach me, but the man and woman I swung aside earlier block his path.

"Tch." The figure doubles back and runs inside the dark oval, disappearing with it. When they sense no trouble is nearby, they lower their weapons and gather around me with looks of worry dawning on their faces.

"He's not healing Oz." the man with grayish black hair starts, "What do we do?" The blonde-haired woman kneels down beside me and places her hand on my cheek.

"It appears he has no aura even after you extracted his Grimm half Professor Ozpin." She says, "It could be because his soul is weakened."

"I still don't understand why you did that. He's obviously one of the Creatures of Grimm. Why spare him?" The raven-haired woman asks harshly, she crosses her arms and leans back to a tree behind her.

"Because Raven, as far as I know about the Creatures of Grimm, I've never seen one that appears to be human. I thought that maybe, just maybe, that he truly is human on the inside. So I tried to save him."

The blonde woman then checks my vitals, placing her index and middle finger on my neck.

"His heart rate is too low… He's dying." She softens her looks.

The group is then alerted as they hear howling nearby.

"We have to go or we'll be surrounded." Raven says looking at Ozpin awaiting his next command.

"Qrow bring him. We can't leave him here."

"What?! You want to bring him? He's only going to slow us down!"

"We cannot have Salem retrieve him. The Creatures of Grimm were able to cause this much damage on Remnant under his command." He then looks to Qrow and says to him, "Try to prevent him from bleeding too much Qrow."

"Oh great, my clothes will be a bloody mess again." He remarks,

"That's all you're worried about?" The blonde woman looks at him sternly,

"Hey don't get me wrong Glynda, I'm worried about the kid as well. He looks like he's around my niece's age. I can't have a kid murdered by our hand in my conscience." Qrow wraps my torso tightly using his tattered red cloak and carried me piggyback style. He looks to Raven and smirks at her, "I trust you have my back sis?"

"You wish. Good luck having to defend yourself with your hands full."

"Hey!"

My consciousness begins to fade in the middle of their conversation. I lean forward on Qrow's back, clinging to a feeling I never felt before: warmth.

I'm back in the same dream from last time, same setting, and the same feeling, This time, I will reach it before I lose air. I push away the strings of shadows and swim as hard as I can, my surroundings getting brighter, becoming a light blue. The light that was twinkling is now shining and looks refracted.

Almost there.

Finally, my hand reached the surface.

It's no longer cold. It's as if my hand is melting into its warmth.

And then… I hear the same voice again,

"I have answered your call."

"You, who desires nothing more than to dispel the darkness inside you,"

"I am thou, and thou art I."

"I, who have been called once again to become Remnant's beacon of hope,"

"I, for as long as you live, will always be there to protect and guide you."

Third POV

Ozpin, Qrow, Raven, and Glynda are resting on a safe clearing in the forest. All four of them look up to the sky to see that dawn has risen.

"Will you look at that!" Qrow exclaims, "We've been hunting the kid for the whole night. When we get back, I'm gonna take a long nap."

"How is he?" Glynda asks, Qrow unwraps his cloak from the boy's torso and saw that his condition has gotten worse.

"He's still not healing."

The four of them are staring gloomily at the lifeless boy. His eyes are open but are slowly drooping down. Glynda checks for his vitals once again,

"He's gone… I'm very sorry Professor."

"It appears… I've made a mistake once again." Ozpin says as he grips his cane tightly. Raven is standing on a spot a little away from them, her eyes showing remorse.

"Dammit…" Qrow said frustratingly as he brings his right knuckles down to the ground. Glynda places her fingers on the boy's eyelids and gently set them down. The sunlight shines across the trees filling light in the forest, especially the boy, the boy's features becoming vibrant, displaying his youth. All four of them look back at the boy once again not seeing a pitiful being but a young boy who appears to be sleeping peacefully.

Until…

He begins to glow blue, the glow turning into a bright light blinding them.

"What the?!"

"What's happening?!"

They shield their eyes until the blue light dies down. The next thing they see when they open their eyes is a ghostly figure of a knight, glowing in the same blue color that enveloped the boy. The knight stands above the boy with his sword pointed down and both hands on the hilt of his sword.

This knight is a knight Ozpin knew all too well.

"King Arthur."


	2. The Shining Beacon

Chapter 1: The Shining Beacon

? POV

Five years have passed since my fight with Uncle Ozpin, Aunt Glynda, Qrow, and Raven. Uncle Ozpin and Aunt Glynda took me in and I stayed in Beacon Academy ever since. Qrow comes by every now and then after his missions to report to Uncle Ozpin. As for Raven, I never saw her again since our encounter.

There were two major problems at first concerning me. First of all was my identity, I never had a name, only titles. I was infamously known as the Grimm Knight all around Remnant, and my mother, Salem, affectionately called me Son of Grimm or just Son. My first name became Crimson thanks to Qrow. He got the idea from my eye that is crimson red and my Son of Grimm title. If I remember correctly, when I was resting in the infirmary he said, "Hmmmm… A crimson eye… Wait, Son of Grimm, Son of Grimm. Son… Ah! I got it now! How about Crimson?"

"That could work." Glynda agreed, "It fits with the color-naming rule after all."

"Very well, what about his last name?" Ozpin asked, the three of them were deep in thought,

"Why not give him the last name Pendragon?" Glynda asked,

"Then people will start mistaking him to be the last of the Pendragon Bloodline, giving Salem all the more reason to go after him as soon as possible." Qrow explained, "You didn't forget the fact that she killed everyone related to King Arthur?"

"Of course I didn't, but you can't deny that the boy is a spitting image of our late king. Brown unkempt hair and one of his eyes have the same shade of blue!"

"Well duh. He's the reincarnation of King Arthur." Qrow said nonchalantly, "You know what? I'm not responsible for the kid so name him however you want."

"Professor?" Both Glynda and Qrow were looking at Ozpin for his thoughts on the matter.

"It's final, his name from now on will be Crimson Pendragon. I'll start writing his records, you two may go back to your duties."

Then second of all was that Uncle Ozpin and Aunt Glynda had heated arguments with the General of Atlas Military, James Ironwood. Apparently he thinks I'm too dangerous to be around anyone especially the students of Beacon. Uncle Ozpin thinks otherwise because of my condition. When I was discharged from the infirmary a few weeks after Uncle Ozpin took me in, Aunt Glynda gave me a tour around Beacon. There weren't that many people in the halls but when we reached the cafeteria in the afternoon, it was crowded.

And that was the problem.

I have the ability to hear people's negative emotions and it scares me, hearing their fear, their anger, their hate, and their suffering makes me want to get away from them before I start going crazy.

That day…

When their negative emotions overwhelmed me, I ran from the cafeteria. While running through the halls, the vision on my left eye became red and the students were shaded black. I bumped into a group of four students. They apologized and helped me up. When they looked at me closely, my eyes surprised them. They've never seen a kid with heterochromia eyes, especially when one of the eyes resembles a Grimm eye. I crouched down with my head on my knees and my hands covering my ears as I started to cry. I unintentionally shocked the four students in front of me and I could hear the fear growing slowly in their hearts. They were afraid of me. Fortunately Aunt Glynda was there before anything could happen and took me to Uncle Ozpin's office where it was quiet. Aunt Glynda told Uncle Ozpin about what happened. He then ordered a customized thick headset with a visor attached. I wore it like a mask over my eyes, the visor fits my head and the headset was perfectly aligned with my ears with the handle hung back behind my neck.

The next day, the four students whom I bumped into, were worried about me. They asked Aunt Glynda how I was and she reassured them that I was fine. I told Aunt Glynda how they were so afraid of me because of my Grimm eye but she told me that I misunderstood their feelings. They were only afraid because they didn't know what to do, that they panicked. They didn't know how to help me when they have the opportunity to do so. When I understood what she meant, I went to find them in the cafeteria. My enhanced hearing didn't affect me as much as it did the last time I came here thanks to Uncle Ozpin's customized headset. I found the group of four students and apologized about how I reacted. They said it was no trouble and that they were glad that I was okay.

Since I am greatly affected by people's negative emotions, a small part of me is still Grimm, and I am the reincarnation of Vale's King Arthur gave Uncle Ozpin all the more reason why I should remain at his side. To be trained and supported by him, and the teachers and students of Beacon Academy. Not to be treated like a soldier or even worse, subjected to an experiment as suggested by General Ironwood to find out more about myself.

Five years have passed since then… I've trained and studied to get this far to be a worthy huntsman to attend Beacon Academy at the required age.

My name is Crimson Pendragon. I am seventeen years old and this is when my story begins.

Third POV

Today is the day Beacon Academy welcomes their returning students and their new first-years. As the new students come out of the airships and walk their first steps on Beacon Academy, their faces are filled with awe. Beacon Academy is truly an amazing sight to take in. The campus is very large with tall towers towering over them. Unbeknownst to the students is that there is a young boy who appears to be the same age as the first year students, sitting on the edge of the roof of the students' dorm that has a clear view of Beacon's Main Avenue. The boy looks curiously at the students walking around Beacon Academy. Most of them he has seen before while some are new. The boy has chocolate brown, unkempt hair and heterochromia eyes, one red and one blue and has fair skin. He wears a black, sleeveless turtle neck shirt with red and blue highlights, black short sleeved jacket with red highlights which the collar is raised in an attempt to cover more of his face, long fingerless gloves that reaches below his elbows, dark blue long shorts that reaches below his knees, and black combat boots. He also wears black metallic colored armor that consists of: a breastplate, a right shoulder pauldron, a left arm guard and a right shin guard. On the back of his black sleeveless jacket is the neon blue symbol that resembles two dragons on each side and a sword in between them, The Pendragon Insignia. On his hands he holds his customized headset with its handle hanging back and has a blue visor attached to it.

The boy is rather nervous. He places his right hand over his chest to feel his heart beating rapidly. Tearing his eyes away from the students, he looks up to the sky admiring the light blue shade, the fluffy, cotton white clouds that drift across, and the sun shining its warmth onto him. The boy's lips curl into a smile, remembering a fond memory he keeps in his heart from five years ago.

He soon felt a presence right beside him,

"I never thought you'd find me here Aunt Glynda." The boy announce as Glynda approaches him,

"It's not that hard to find you," Glynda replies, "This has always been your usual spot since we took you in."

"Ah, I didn't mean it like that. I thought you'd be too busy checking in with me because of the new school year and all." Glynda takes a seat next to boy taking in the view together with him,

"That being said, why aren't you down there with the new students Crimson? The welcoming ceremony will start in twenty minutes." Crimson chuckles lightly and using his index finger to scratch his temple at the question, "You're nervous aren't you?"

"Well yeah. This will be the first time I hang out with people at my age. Plus, you and Uncle Ozpin kept me within school grounds. Sure I get to go out to Vale once in a while, but that's only if I have one of the teachers accompanying me. So I never really got to play with kids at my age… Not that I want to anyways."

"But you understand why we had to do that yes?"

"Of course, if it were me I would've done the same thing to myself."

"AACCCHHHOOO!"

 **BOOM**

The two people on the roof look down at the Main Avenue to see an explosion with hints of lightning and ice. When the smoke clears, they see two girls, one wearing a red hood and the other wearing white clothes arguing at each other. Crimson glances at Glynda and sees her dissatisfaction on the event and grins widely at her reaction,

"It's only the first day, and there's already explosions." He comments,

"Yes, this year's first years will be quite a handful. Especially with you with them." Glynda has a ghost of a smile saying that.

"Hey!"

"While I am worried about you, I'm here to remind you that from this day forth, you will address me and your Uncle Ozpin as your Professors. Is that understood?"

"I have no problems with that. We aren't even related anyways." Crimson stands up and puts on his headset and visor, and decides to move down to the Amphitheater, "I'll see you soon Professor Goodwitch." Glynda smiles at him, proud of how far he has come and looking forward to seeing him grow even further.

As Crimson walks across the Main Avenue, he hears two voices not far from him. He continues walking until he sees two new students who appear to be lost. One of them is the girl with a red hood who exploded earlier. The other is a boy with blonde hair that is slightly taller than him by two inches.

"Hey there," he calls out to them, "You guys lost?" the girl with a red hood smiles, happy that they found someone who can guide them around campus.

"Oh yes! Jaune and I are wondering where the welcoming ceremony will be." The girl has black short hair that becomes dark red on the tips and silver eyes. She wears a long sleeved thick black blouse with a high collar and red trim on the sleeves, a black waist cincher with red lacing up the front, and a black skirt with red trim. She also wears a pair of thick black stockings and black combat boots with red laces, red trim around the top and red soles.

"That would be in the Amphitheater," Crimson says while pointing the direction with his right thumb and his left hand behind his head, "You guys can follow me there if you like?"

"Sure thing!" The girl joyfully jumps up in the air. The three of them start to walk together going to the Amphitheater.

"Soooo… I'm Ruby, what's your name?" Ruby asks, initiating a conversation and not wanting things to be awkward between the three of them.

"Crimson."

"Nice to meet you Crimson!" Ruby then nudges Jaune using her elbow on his lower abdomen telling him, "C'mon Jaune! Introduce yourself too!" The boy named Jaune has dark-blue eyes and messy, layered, blonde hair. He wears a diamond-shaped chest plate cut off above his lower abdomen and white spaulders with rerebraces set under them. Underneath the armor, he wears a black short-sleeved hoodie with detached reddish-orange sleeves. He also wears blue pants with a white patch on his left knee as well as black sneakers. Jaune gives Crimson a confident smile and says,

"Hey, the name's Jaune Arc, short, sweet, rolls of the tongue, ladies love it." Crimson turns to Ruby and asks her,

"Do you love it?"

"Well not really," Jaune looks down when he heard that, "but I'm sure there's someone who will!"

"I'll give you that."

"So, what kind of weapons do you have?"

"Oh, I don't have my weapons with me right now. I left them in my locker. Don't worry though, you'll see it during tomorrow's initiation."

"Well in that case," Ruby reaches for her collapsed weapon behind her and transformed it into a scythe, "meet Crescent Rose. My pride and joy." She says as she coos her weapon.

"Wow, a customizable scythe with a high impact velocity sniper rifle." Says Crimson while looking at it very carefully.

"Oh my Oum! Are you into weapons too?! Not a lot of people can identify Crescent Rose just by looking at her."

"Hahaha, no. I am not into weapons as much as you do. I knew what it is through my visor. It can help me identify stuff with the database I installed into it."

"Oooooh, it looks so cool."

"It kind of makes me wonder what you look like under it though." Jaune points out.

"Sorry, I can't remove it right now. While it does give me information about my surroundings, it can also help me see better. I'll be honest with you, I have terrible eyesight."

"Then why not glasses?" Jaune asks,

"A fair point. I'm colorblind. My environments become red and I can see like a lot of dark spots."

"I see." Jaune says, accepting the explanation.

"Do you wear it in your sleep?" Ruby is taken aback by how weird her question is. Crimson chuckles at that,

"No, I don't wear it when I sleep." Crimson looks back at the two to see them whispering to each other, "I hope you guys aren't planning to disturb me when I sleep." Ruby and Jaune are flustered when Crimson found out what they are planning to do later tonight.

"W-w-what are you talking about? We would never do that. I mean that's invasion of privacy." Ruby says, stuttering. They finally arrive in the Amphitheater. Inside, there's someone calling out Ruby's name in the middle of the crowd,

"Ruby!" a girl calls out, "Over here! I saved you a spot!"

"Oh! Hey, I gotta go. I'll see you after the ceremony!" Ruby goes to the girl with golden hair despite Jaune's protests in leaving him and Crimson behind.

"Hey wait!" Jaune calls out and sighs now that Ruby is gone, "Great. Where are we going to find another nice, quirky girl to talk to?"

Crimson looks at him questioningly, "We?"

"Yeah. Me and you," Jaune says pointing to himself then to Crimson, "I mean we're here to not only become heroes but also to get some girls. Right?"

Crimson snorts at what Jaune just said, "I think that's just you big guy." Jaune then walks ahead of Crimson and expects him to follow but he didn't,

"Aren't you coming?" Crimson shakes his head and replies,

"Sorry, I'm not a big fan of crowds. I'll be right here if you need me."

"Ok, I'll see you later Crimson." Crimson waves to Jaune. After he's left behind, Professor Ozpin begins his welcoming speech.

"I'll… keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge—to hone your craft and acquire new skills. And when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose – direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."

Crimson listens intently to the speech and is filled with determination, if he didn't have the resolve to be a huntsman; he certainly has one right now, the memories of his time as the Grimm Knight pours into his mind. Images of people murdered by his hand and the houses he burned. Now that he has overcome his darkness, he swears to himself to protect these people, just as his king promised to him.

Once Professor Ozpin steps away from the microphone, Professor Goodwitch proceeds to her announcements.

"You will gather in the ballroom tonight. Tomorrow your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed."

Night has fallen in Beacon. Crimson changed to his pajamas, which is a white sleeveless shirt and black shorts. Crimson leans back onto the wall while sitting down on his sleeping bag. He's listening to "Gold" from his customized headset so he won't be overwhelmed by the negative emotions he hears from the students around him. The song of his choice reassures his special insecurities. Crimson looks up to see Jaune dragging his sleeping bag and placing it beside his. He also notes Jaune's interesting choice of sleepwear, blue full body pajamas with blue bunny slippers and a white bunny face on its chest. Once Jaune finally settles down, Crimson decides to voice his opinion,

"Nice pajamas," he says, smirking at Jaune,

"Hardy har har, very funny Crimson." Jaune replies back catching on his comment.

"No really. They're unique."

"That's putting it lightly." Jaune lies back on his sleeping bag with hands behind his head, "Hey Crimson?"

"Hmm?" Crimson pauses his music to give Jaune his undivided attention

"You nervous about tomorrow's initiation? What do you think we're going to do?"

"We're going to fight, that's for sure. We are huntsman-in-training to protect people from the Creatures of Grimm. And yeah, I am nervous. Not about fighting, it's more about who my team mates will be."

"Oh yeah, there's that too…" Jaune raises his hand in front of Crimson, gesturing for a handshake, "Why don't we be in the same team then?"

Crimson is happy at the idea. Even though Jaune doesn't look like he can hold out in a fight, Crimson's sure that will change during his four years here in Beacon and he'll help him if he asks. But Crimson knew better than that.

"I'll be happy to be in the same team as you," Crimson grasp Jaune's hand and shakes it firmly, "but I don't think that's how forming teams here work."

"Really? How are teams formed here then?"

"I don't know," Crimson smirks to himself and making sure Jaune doesn't see, "I just have a feeling that the professors shouldn't make it this easy for students to form teams."

"I see. You might be wrong though."

"Yeah I might be." Jaune then turns his back on Crimson, making himself comfortable and ready for bed, "Well, g'night Crimson."

"Good night."

Crimson stays up for a little longer, waiting until Jaune is sound asleep. Before he removes his visor and goes to sleep, he heard arguing nearby. Looking to his right, he found Ruby, the blonde-hair girl and the white-hair girl she was with earlier in the day, and a black-hair girl with a bow. He looks at them for a while until the girl with a bow blows the candlelight, dispelling the final light in the ballroom.


	3. The First Step

Chapter 2: The First Step

Crimson's POV

I find myself inside a gigantic, spacious, and very bright room. The windows are many feet above me, because of the sun rising, the windows aligned on the left are shining multiple colors on the porcelain floor. The windows on the right are not shining like the ones on the left but they are vibrant because of the sunlight that traveled here in the room. Right beneath the windows from both sides are tall white pillars supporting the weight of the ceiling, preventing it from falling to the floor. There is a long red carpet, carefully laid out in front of me. I notice that I am no longer wearing my pajamas but royal garments with armor. The royal garments consist of a blue cotton cloak with soft, light golden fur, a silky, white, long sleeved shirt with gold highlights, and long brown stockings. On top of the silk shirt is a polished, well-made chainmail with pauldrons, cuisses, and a breastplate. I trace the red carpet, seeing that it'll lead me to what appears to be a throne. Next to it is a man. He is beneath the colorful rays of the sun with his sword pointed downwards. I slowly walk towards him as I try to get as much detail as I can of this room, trying to remember it, and at the same time being wary of the man, unsure of who he is. Each step I take, the man seems to get bigger and bigger, probably around six foot and three inches. He's also wearing the same outfit as I have but with a golden crown on his head. He turns to me and surprisingly he's like an older spitting image of me, except he doesn't have heterochromia eyes like I do. He smiles as if he waited ages to finally see me,

"We meet again, Crimson." He says but I do not recognize him, I honestly never met a man like him before, "Do you not recognize me?" He responds to my confused look and then he realizes, "Ah, that's right you never saw my face, only my armor." He gestures to something behind him with his arm outstretched and it is indeed an armor I'm most familiar with. That's when I realize who he is. I immediately bow before the man, one knee down, my right hand forming a fist and placing it above my chest, and my head parallel to the floor. The man chuckles before saying, "There's no need to be so courteous, if anything I should be thanking you for allowing me to take place in your heart."

"You saved my life by doing just that, thus I am forever indebted to you." I respond while still bowing,

"Rise," he says encouragingly, "You may think otherwise, but whether you like it or not, we are – in some ways – one and the same." I rise up just as he commanded, and I see that he has a troubled look on his face,

"Is something the matter?"

"The other knights disapproved of me choosing you as my host. The first time I reincarnated, I chose someone from my lineage because it amplifies the knights' abilities when their host has the knights' blood flowing through their veins, but over the years, we could not uphold that tradition."

"Your lineage… was killed by my mother…" I say guiltily.

"Yes… Ares' descendants however, were much worse than mine. His was corrupted. Overwhelmed by the ability to best your enemies and using them to massacre anybody who stands in their way. Ares' hosts were always a prodigy in military training and he takes pride over them. His host now is no exception, however, the host is not from his lineage."

"What about the other knights?" I ask,

"Robin Hood's descendants became afraid because of what happened to my family. They no longer wanted to be associated with Robin Hood because of their fear of the same thing happening to them. Robin complied with their wishes and began choosing hosts whom he thinks are worthy of his abilities. Susano-O on the other hand, remained devoted to his lineage and they to him."

"Do you agree with them? Did you regret choosing me?" I look down, sad by the news that the other knights think that I am not worthy of being King Arthur's host. The more I think about it, the more it starts to ring true. Maybe I really am not worthy to protect Remnant. After everything I've done to the people here? Who am I kidding? Training to be a Huntsman just to redeem myself. In the end when they know who I truly am, they'll always see the monster I was born to be. Why did I even ask that question? It's obvious he thinks the same thing.

"If there's one thing I'll regret my whole life… It's choosing not to save you that day five years ago." I looking at King Arthur once again; he still smiles warmly at me as if I am his own son, showing his sincerity as he answers. "I chose you because I wanted to save you, not because I wanted you to be my knight. I wanted to give you the life you've always deserved despite the sins you've committed. It didn't matter whether I wanted you to be my knight in the near future so I certainly didn't expect you to train to become a huntsman, to dedicate your life to protecting our people. Which is why I called you here to make things official."

King Arthur now stands squarely in front of me, facing me seriously. "You are not a Knight of Remnant yet. I have not given you my abilities as a knight because I thought that you'd choose a normal life, one that does not involve violence. But now that you're in Beacon, I need to know whether or not your intentions of becoming a huntsman are clear. Crimson," he calls my name with such high intensity making me really anxious. He nods his head down, telling me to take knee. I obey what his command as he raises his sword. "Will you be my representative as a Knight of Remnant? Sworn to protect its people from the darkness that is to come?"

I look up at him again, reading the expressionless look on his face but nonetheless expecting me to answer honestly and determinedly.

"I will." I finally say.

"Then, from this day forth," he lightly taps his sword on my right shoulder, "you are worthy of my title," then he lightly taps his sword on my left shoulder, "Crimson Pendragon, Knight of Remnant." I rise up once again as he sheathes his sword, "I should warn you, that the road will not be easy. You will face such trials and tribulations that may break you, but you will not be alone. Remember that always..."

Before I can ask him anything about what will happen, King Arthur and his throne room fades to white.

Third POV

Crimson wakes up with tired eyes, his vision blurred. He blinks once, and then he blinks twice to get his vision sorted out. It is still quite dark in Beacon but one can see the orange glow of the sun from the horizon. Crimson grudgingly gets himself up to get ready for his usual morning run around Beacon. He puts on his visor headset and quietly sneaks past the sleeping students. He reaches his locker number 014 and grabs his gym shirt and shorts. He checks his watch on his left wrist and read 6:00 am. Crimson didn't want to stress his body too much before initiation so he decides to take the short route around Beacon with a slow jog.

By the time he returns to the locker room, he reads his watch again, 6:30 am. He takes a shower and puts on his usual getup, and then he heads to the cafeteria. The cafeteria isn't as crowded and it usually is in the afternoon but there are a few early birds ready for their day. One of those early birds is a girl with orange hair and turquoise eyes. Crimson notices that she is extremely excited through her loud and talkative nature. Surprisingly for Crimson, there is a boy next to her who will listen to her talk on and on. They're both eating stacks of pancakes on their plates, which beg Crimson to wonder what he'll eat for breakfast.

"Right. What was I thinking?" the girl asks herself as Crimson walks past her, "But still, I hope we end up on the same team together." Before she starts talking again, she slurps her pancake, "Ooh! We should come up with some sort of plan! To make sure we are in the same team together! What if we bribe the headmaster? No, that won't work, he has the school."

Even if Crimson increases the distance between him and the pair, he can still hear the girl talking. Crimson deduces that they are first years as well, based on the girl's ongoing speech. Ignoring them, he decides to eat pancakes as well, along with slices of fruit and orange juice.

After finishing breakfast, Crimson heads back to the locker room to get his weapon, Caliburn. Caliburn is an average long sword with a gold guard and blue handle. The gold guard has a large hole on the middle of the left side so that Crimson can attach his sword on his right pauldron, which has a bump that is the perfect shape as the shape on the guard. It can split itself into two, and by combining the hilts of both swords it will transform into a double-sided lance. Above the golden guard is the Pendragon Insignia carved onto the blade, but with the dragons breathing fire that reaches a quarter length of the blade.

"I know! We'll have some sort of signal! Like a distress signal!" Crimson hears the same loud voice he heard earlier in the cafeteria. After attaching his sword to his pauldron and closing his locker, he turns to his left and sees the same pair he saw in the cafeteria, "A secret signal so we can find each other in the forest!" The girl points to the boy accompanying her and asks him, "Can you imitate a sloth?"

"Nora…" The boy speaks, all this time Crimson thought he was a mute but now he makes a mental note to himself that the boy doesn't talk as much as people usually do.

"Yes, Ren?"

"I don't think sloths make a lot of noise."

"…That's why it's perfect! No one will suspect we're working together." Ren smiles to the girl,

"Come on, Nora. Let's go." Ren and Nora left the locker room to Beacon Cliff. Just as the pair left, there is another pair, both of them are girls and one of them Crimson knew from yesterday.

"Wonder what those two were so worked up about." Ruby comments, she turns to her right and saw a familiar face.

"Crimson!" She smiles at him,

"Hey Ruby." Crimson greets back, he then looks to the older blonde girl Ruby is with. The girl looks at him with interest.

"Oh! Uh, Crimson this is my older sister Yang, and Yang this is Crimson the other new friend I made." Ruby introduces us. Yang has fair skin, lilac eyes, and amazingly bright golden hair. She wears a tan jacket that leaves her stomach bare with golden brown piping and short, puffy, sleeves with black cuffs. Underneath her tan jacket is a low cut, yellow crop top with her emblem that resembles a burning heart on top of her left breast. She also wears a brown belt; underneath it is a white transparent cloth, black mini-shorts, and brown, knee high boots. On her wrists are yellow bracelets, but Crimson thinks there's more to it than that.

"So, you're the one who showed my baby sister the way to the welcoming ceremony," Yang and Crimson shake hands to formally start their acquaintanceship, "Thanks for helping her out, Yang Xiao Long." Crimson gives her a puzzled look,

"Xiao Long? But I thought you girls said that you are sisters?"

"Half-sisters, same dad, different moms." Yang answers,

"Makes sense."

"How about you? What's your story? And what's with that mask?" Yang asks, hoping to learn more about Ruby's second boy friend,

"Oh, it's not a mask Yang, it's actually a visor that helps him see better. It also has a database, which he can access to learn more about his surroundings. It looks so cool." Ruby says while looking at Crimson's visor headset with stars in her eyes.

"Then why not glasses?" Yang asks the most common question for Crimson when it comes to his visor,

"He's colorblind, the only colors he can see are black and red." Crimson decides to stay quiet and let Ruby answer the questions for him. Unfortunately for Crimson, Ruby doesn't last long no matter how much he wishes she'll answer the questions long enough for him slip past them.

"Ruby, I'm pretty sure Crimson can answer my questions by himself." Yang smirks playfully at her sister then to Crimson, "Well?" Crimson pauses for a bit, thinking very carefully which bits and pieces of his life should he mention and not mention. Obviously he doesn't want the two girls to know about his time as the Grimm Knight, but his story afterwards will also sound pitiful based on Yang's other questions.

"To answer your – "

"This is absolutely ridiculous!" Jaune exclaims, "Oh! There you are Crimson. I've been looking everywhere for you!" Jaune says with relief when he saw Crimson, "You mind helping me find locker 636? I can't believe I put my gear there, if I did, I would've remembered having to count that high!"

"Sure!" Crimson says immediately, "Well I guess I'll see you girls during initiation! Bye!" Crimson dashes past Yang and Ruby leading Jaune to Locker 636 faster than Jaune has expected.

"Hey! Wait!" Yang calls out to Crimson but he did not hear her. "Geez, what was that about?"

"I don't know Yang, maybe your flirts were too much?"

"I wasn't even trying too hard!" Ruby shrugs her off. Meanwhile Crimson pants while Jaune is confused by what happened.

"What was that about Crimson?"

"Sorry about that. I was just nervous that's all." Crimson says as he catches his breath.

"Yeah I can see that," Jaune opens his locker to get his gear while talking to Crimson, "But why blow Yang off like that? She's nice, she looks really pretty, and she clearly was interested in you." Crimson blushes deeply at his statement.

"What?! That's ridiculous! We just met!" Crimson counters,

"Ever heard of the saying 'Love at First Sight'?"

"That saying is not even realistic!"

"You're hopeless Crimson, at this rate you'll never get a girlfriend." Jaune sighs hopelessly to his friend,

"What makes you think I want one in the first place?!"

"Oh my Oum… Why didn't you tell me before?" Jaune asks, his face full of realization,

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Crimson asks back, confused about what the conversation turned into,

"That you're into guys! Man if I knew, I would've stayed away from you." Jaune takes a huge step back,

"What the – NO! I'm not into guys! That's even more ridiculous!"

"Oh really? Be honest with me Crimson, if you are gay, I'll still be your friend. It's just that it would be really weird if you're into me you know?"

"I'M. NOT. GAY." Crimson says very clearly.

"Whatever," Jaune ignores him, "Anyways, let me show _you_ how to get a girl." Jaune points towards two other girls who are talking about teams. One of them argued with Ruby and Yang last night, and the other he never met before but Crimson finds her familiar. Jaune then winks at him and approaches the girls with confidence.

"Well I was thinking maybe we could be on the same team together." The girl with white hair says,

"Well that sounds grand!" The other girl who has red hair replies,

"Great!" The girl with white hair responds happily. But looking closer, Crimson notices that the girl clasps her hands together and has a devilish grin on her face. Crimson makes another mental note to stay away from this girl because nothing good will ever come out of it. Jaune then uses this opportunity to step in,

"You know what else is great?" Jaune steps behind the white haired girl and leans on a locker using his right arm, trying to look cool, "Me, Jaune Arc. Nice to meet you." Crimson scoffs at his approach, he would've left but decides to stay for the incoming amusement.

"You again?" The girl with white hair wipes her evil smirk off and replaces it with disgust towards Jaune,

"Nice to meet you, Jaune!" The red haired girl on the other hand is ecstatic to meet a new face; sadly Jaune pays very little attention to her. He pushes her aside and continues talking to the white haired girl

"Yeah, yeah. So, Weiss! Couldn't help but overhear your fondness of me the other day."

When Crimson heard her name that was when he remembered her. Weiss Schnee, heiress of the Schnee Dust Company in Atlas. She has pale skin with pale blue eyes; her left eye has a vertical, crooked scar. Her long white hair pulled into an off-center bun by using an icicle shaped tiara. She wears a thigh length, strapless, white dress, the hem was adorned with snowflakes with layers of tulle under the skirt. She also wears a bell-sleeved white bolero that is also red on the inside and has the Schnee Family Crest on the back, and white, wedged-heeled boots. Her notable accessories are a small apple pendant, rectangular silver earrings, and a thin white sash tied up around her waist.

Weiss face palms while Jaune continues to pursue her, "Oh you've got to be kidding me."

"Don't worry, no need to be embarrassed! So, have been hearin' rumors about teams! I was thinking you, me and my friend Crimson over there would make a good one." Jaune points towards Crimson, turning the girl's attention to him who nervously makes an awkward smile and waves his hand to them. The girl with red hair who is with Weiss waves back while Weiss herself ignores him. Crimson's a little hurt by her cold action but he's been expecting it. "What do you say?"

"Actually, I think the teams are comprised of 4 students each, so –"

"You don't say." Jaune interrupts her but turns his attention to her, "Well, hot-stuff, play your cards right and maybe you could join up with the winning team." Weiss stops him before things get out of hand. Crimson steps closer to see how the conversation would go.

"Jaune, is it?" Weiss outstretches both of her hands across Jaune and the red haired girl, "Do you have any idea who you are talking to?" Weiss asks him.

"Not in the slightest, Snow Angel" Jaune answers back, while Crimson is fighting himself from laughing too hard at Jaune's nickname for Weiss. Snow Angel is not a nickname he would certainly use on her.

"This is Pyrrha." Weiss introduces her,

"Hello again!" Pyrrha greets Jaune and Crimson,

"Pyrrha graduated top of her class at Sanctum." Weiss continues while Crimson finally recognizes the girl he's so familiar with. Pyrrha Nikos, number one student in Sanctum from Mistral and three-time champion of the Mistral Regional Tournament in a row until another huntsman beat her last year. Pyrrha's red hair was tied up using a ponytail and was curled slightly into a loose ringlet, and her eyes are a light shade green. Pyrrha is tall and muscular than most girls Crimson usually sees around Beacon but that only added points to her natural beauty. She wears a brown, overbust corset with a vertical strip of light brown in the center, a black, elastic mini-skirt, brown opera-length gloves, and an ankle length sash tied around her waist. Her accessories are a circular, bronze plate that has her "shield and spear" symbol on her hip, two pouches attached to her belt, a bronze gorget on her neck, bronze bracelet on her left arm, and a beautiful bronze headpiece. Crimson almost thought that Pyrrha was of royalty because of her headpiece but dismisses immediately. Most of her body is covered in armor: bronze greaves and cuisses.

"Never heard of it." Jaune replies with nonchalance and without shame. Crimson face palms at his ignorance and decides to step in the conversation before Weiss will pull her hair out and make things worse.

"Her name is Pyrrha Nikos. She won the Mistral Regional Tournament three years in a row until last year another contestant beat her, thus breaking her streak, but she's nonetheless one of the strongest huntresses at our age to the point people nicknamed her the 'Invincible Girl'" I explain to Jaune and raise my hand in front of Pyrrha, "It's an honor to meet you Ms. Nikos."

"Please," Pyrrhic says humbly, "call me Pyrrha, there's no need for formalities. We are all initiates in this academy." She takes Crimson's hand in an attempt to shake it but Crimson has other ideas and chooses to showoff in front of Jaune, showing him how much he underestimated him. Instead of shaking her hand, Crimson raises it gently to his lips and kisses it tenderly. Pyrrha blushes at contact while Weiss and Jaune are slacking their jaws. "Well, aren't you a gentleman." Pyrrha says while blushing the same shade of red as her hair.

"You can thank my Aunt for that." Crimson replies with a cheeky grin. Jaune shakes off his amazement and continues being ignorant,

"She won the what again?" Crimson sighs pitifully at his friend.

"You eat Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes?" Crimson asks,

"Yes, why?"

"She's on the front of every single one of those boxes Jaune." Jaune gasps, his moment of realization has arrived.

"That's you? They only do that for star athletes and cartoon characters!"

"Yeah, it was pretty cool. Sadly the cereal isn't very good for you." Pyrrha says admittingly,

"So, after hearing all of this, do you really think you're in a position to ask _her_ to be on your team?" Weiss asks Jaune with a triumphant smile. Jaune looks down, realizing his mistake.

"I guess not… Sorry."

"Actually Jaune, I think you'd make a great leader." Pyrrha places a reassuring hand on Jaune's shoulder.

"D'oh, stop it!" Jaune brightens up in a second,

"Seriously, please stop it." Weiss disapprovingly says, "This kind of behavior should not be encouraged!" Jaune, with renewed enthusiasm restarts his confident approach to Weiss.

"Sounds like Pyrrha's on board for team Jaune. Spots are filling up quick. Now, I'm not supposed to do this, but maybe I could pull some strings. Find a place for you. What do you say?" Jaune leans closer to Weiss causing her to lean back away from him.

"Alright, that's a bit too close! Pyrrha, a little help please?!" In a split second, Crimson sees Pyrrha reaching for her javelin and about to throw it at Jaune. She releases the javeling from her hand, then it slowly making its way to Jaune. Crimson takes a step forward, stretching his hand across Jaune, and catches the javelin. Because of Pyrrha's strength, a wind blows past Jaune and Crimson. Pyrrha is surprised by the outcome. She never expected her javelin to be easily caught by someone. Crimson blinks for a moment but he composes himself and turns to Pyrrha, handing her weapon back.

"You should be careful about throwing around weapons when there are people around. You may never know when you'll poke someone's eye out."

"Sorry, it was a force of habit." Pyrrha apologizes,

"It's alright, I can tell."

"I'm impressed. No one has ever caught my spear without a problem."

"It's nothing really."

"I'll also be happy to be on the same team as you…" She pauses, forgetting Crimson's name.

"Crimson." Pyrrha is still looking at him, waiting for more details but Crimson stays quiet because no one asked specifically for first name or full name. Weiss is impatient so she asks one of the very questions Crimson is worried to be asked about.

"Just Crimson? What's your last name? Or is it that you don't have a last name?" Weiss is challenging Crimson. Crimson is unfazed by her provocation and sighs to himself before answering,

"Pendragon, Crimson Pendragon."

The moment he answers is the moment he realizes that two other people are eavesdropping on their conversation, Yang and Ruby. He mentally curses himself but calms down as he is convinced that this is bound to happen sooner or later. All of the people who heard his answer and didn't know Crimson before then are shocked with wide-open eyes. Of course they would recognize the name, it is the last name of Vale's famous king in history. Weiss snaps from her shock and puts on a look of disbelief.

"Why hide who you are?"

"Yeah, I never knew you are a Pendragon." Jaune agrees with Weiss, "I thought they all di – " Pyrrha stops Jaune from saying any further and stays quiet.

"No, don't stop him from saying it Pyrrha. It's the truth, all of the Pendragons died in an unfortunate accident years ago. If there was a survivor, all of Remnant should have known!" Weiss glares at Crimson. If looks could kill, Crimson would've died by now, "Which is why I'm having a hard time believing that you are who you say you are. I won't be surprised if you turned out to be one of those Pendragon wannabes. You aren't the first person I've met who claimed to be a Pendragon." Crimson tilts his head down slightly, the bangs of his messy hair shadowing his eyes. He also has a small, sad smile, which no one noticed.

"You're probably right. Maybe I am a wannabe. To tell you the truth, I didn't have a name. So the people who took care of me gave me one as a way to remember our great king." Weiss faces Crimson with disappointment,

"Hmph. I knew it. Naming someone who has no relation to the greatest king of Vale thus has no right to be named after him is the worst way I've ever heard to remember him and his dead lineage."

"Would all first year students report to Beacon Cliff immediately." Crimson hears Professor Goodwitch's voice from the overhead speakers, "Again, all first year students report to Beacon Cliff immediately." Weiss starts to walk towards the exit of the locker room that leads to Beacon Cliff. As she passes by Crimson, she makes sure only he can hear every single word she has to say,

"You disgust me." Crimson looks back over his shoulder but still standing on the same spot as Pyrrha also passes by him but with an apologizing expression,

"It was nice meeting both of you." She says,

"Likewise." Jaune sighs; then he stands in front of Crimson making sure he is okay.

"Thanks for the save back there." Crimson nods and begins walking to Beacon Cliff with Jaune following closely behind him. Jaune feels a hand on his shoulder and sees that it's Yang getting his attention,

"Having trouble there, Lady-killer?"

"I don't understand… My dad said all women look for is confidence. Where did I go wrong?"

"'Snow Angel' probably wasn't the best start. Take Crimson's example! He was able to get Pyrrha Nikos to blush!"

"Yeah… And here I thought that he was hopeless when it comes to girls."

"You're wrong about that Jaune." Ruby said to him. Speaking of Crimson, the three of them are walking behind him but he hasn't said a word. Yang is a little worried about him and she knew it was because of something Weiss said to him earlier that was only meant for his ears. Yang reaches Crimson and asks him,

"Are you okay?" Crimson doesn't turn to her immediately, keeping his head up for a while causing Yang to think he needs some space. She's about to stop and let Ruby and Jaune catch up to her until Crimson stops as well and gives her a small smile.

"Yeah I'm fine. Just wondering about initiation." Crimson opens the exit door in front of him and he meets a refreshing breeze. He can see the massive Emerald Forest below Beacon Cliff. Up ahead are some silhouettes standing at the edge of it.

'You will face such trials and tribulations that may break you,'

'But you will not be alone.'

'Remember that always.'

Crimson remembers King Arthur's words to heart and remains strong as he takes his first step to becoming a huntsman.


	4. Initiation

Chapter 3: Initiation

Beacon Cliff shows off the vast view of Emerald Forest, layers of lush green trees overlapping each other. The farther the eyes can see the darker shade of green the trees become. Emerald Forest, like any other forest gives off that serene feeling of peace inside, but don't let that fool you. The Creatures of Grimm lie hidden in the forest doing what Oum only knows. On the edge of the cliff, lined up side by side are the initiates of Beacon Academy. Crimson lines up along with them, he stands on the very first launch pad. On the far left, next to Jaune who is on the last launch pad, are Professors Ozpin and Professor Goodwitch. They begin to explain the instructions of the initiation by saying them in turns, starting with Professor Ozpin.

"For years you have trained to become warriors. And today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest."

"Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of teams. Well allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates… today."

"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone whom you can work well. That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."

"What?!" someone yells out interrupting the professors.

"After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest." Professor Ozpin continues, "You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path, or you will die. You will be monitored and graded for the duration of your initiation. But our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of your path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one, and return to the top of the cliff. We will regard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?"

"Yeah, um sir – " Jaune asks, raising his hand, but Professor Ozpin interrupts him.

"Good! Now take your positions." Crimson snickers to himself wondering how many of the initiates do not know how they will go down to Emerald Forest. He looks to his right observing the expressions on the initiates' faces. Much to his disappointment, all of them are crouching down in their own original stances ready to be launched to the air… Except for one. Crimson makes a small smile telling himself that one is better than nothing at all. He crouches down along with the other students and is launched first to the sky.

Crimson's landing strategy has some risks if he doesn't get his timing right, and it requires a bit of luck. That is because he has no way of slowing himself down or shield himself from eventually crashing into the trees. Crimson is hoping that at least some of the trees are very close to each other. He detaches Caliburn from his pauldron and switches it into its double-sided lance form. Crimson doesn't like to take his time too much so by the time he reaches his peak, he puts his hands by his side, his feet together, and dives down. As Crimson nears the trees, he raises his lance in front of him, both hands on the shaft, holding it tightly as he braces for impact. Luckily for him, both blades on the ends of his lance dug into two different tree trunks. He uses his momentum to spin himself around his lance and yanks it away from the trees, landing safely on the ground. He checks his surroundings for anyone in sight but finds no one. He decides to proceed going north and meet his partner along the way. He uses his watch that Professor Ozpin gave him 4 years ago on his birthday. He points the hour hand to the sun then estimates the middle point of the angle between the hour hand and the 12 o'clock marker, drawing an imaginary line through the middle point and to the center points to south. And that is northeast from where he's standing so he turns opposite of that direction and heads to the right direction of north.

After quite sometime, Crimson has not made any eye contact with anyone. He's beginning to think if all the initiates have found their partners and he is the only one left out. He scratches the thought because he's already aware that a week ago, his Uncle Ozpin accepted the final student thus completing their roster. Which means that everyone should have a partner.

What if some of the initiates already failed? Now that's the problem. Although Crimson already knew where the initiation will take place and how the initiates will get there, the one thing he doesn't know if initiates fail on the spot.

It doesn't matter; he'll find the solution to the situation if the need arises. What matters right now is to go to the abandoned temple where surely most of the initiates will be there and hopefully he'll find his partner.

Then suddenly, Crimson's vision begins to glow red. He can see the environments in their natural colors but the outline of his vision is red.

 **Rustle** **Rustle**

Now his left vision is vibrating red. He stops on his tracks and is in a position that is ready for an ambush.

 **Growl**

 **"AWOOOOOO!"**

Crimson turns to his left to see two Beowolves, which is odd because Beowolves travel in packs. However, there is an exception, if one or two were to stray far from the pack that means they are scouts. On the field, when hunters and huntresses encounter stray Beowolves, they have to be eliminated immediately. Because the moment Beowolves scouts see a threat they make a wake-up call to the rest of their companions telling them it's time for breakfast. Crimson knows that he's outnumbered the moment the rest of the Beowolves in their pack comes running, but to even the odds a bit, he kills the two scouts. He separates Caliburn's double-sided lance to twin swords. As he dashes to the two Beowolves, one of them meets Crimson halfway with the other close behind, its paw raised high up with claws bare. Crimson blocks the Beowulf's attack with the sword in his left hand and beheads the Beowulf with a swing from the sword in his right hand. The second Beowulf scout is ready to strike Crimson after taking down its companion. Crimson sees this coming and dodges by rolling forward. Crimson quickly gets up to his feet and kicks forward at the second Beowulf as it turns back, causing the Beowulf to stumble back to the floor. Crimson steps above it and stabs his twin swords on its chest.

Crimson's vision on his left eye is no longer a vibrant red. It dims but a hint of red is still there. More Creatures of Grimm are coming his way, specifically the Beowolves from the scouts' pack. Crimson sprints north counting on his luck to not run into the pack while reaching the abandoned temple.

Crimson curses his luck as he sees a train of Beowolves coming from his right. He estimates the distance between him and the intersecting point where he meets the pack. He sprints faster, thinking he'll pass by them before they'll impact. The ground shakes as they near each other. Crimson nearly loses his footing but he catches himself along the way and sprinted faster than he has ever been on his life…

He passes them.

However, Crimson slows down a bit to look back and see where the pack will go. The moment Crimson passes the pack; they soon follow him, high on his tail.

"Crap!" he curses, he picks up the pace he had when he was racing the pack and continues sprinting north. He prays that there's someone who'll help him or at least something to distract the pack and slow them down.

 **BANG**

He hears a gunshot nearby. He looks back again to see one Beowulf crashing down as it lost it's footing because of the gunshot. He wishes he can see whoever is shooting but he doesn't have the time to stop and look unless he wants to be eaten to death, although he's quite relieved to hear someone's voice.

"Ahoy there! Whatever ya do, ya keep going straight, ya?! Yeh'll activate a mine I set up a lil' while ago! That outta distract the horde!" the voice, which certainly belongs to a young man; and he certainly sounds like a sailor. Crimson has no other choice nor does he have any other way to get away from the horde but to listen to a guy he never met.

In a short distance away, Crimson sees a red light blinking on the ground. He's seen one of those mines before and gets the idea the guy was saying before. Slowing down a little bit for the horde to catch up to him as he nears the mine, he steps on it and ran behind a nearby tree not too far from the mine to see it detonate and create a wall of fire as far as his eyes can see. The Beowolves are howling erratically, and then it dies down when Crimson feels the ground shaking again, indicating that they're moving to another direction.

Crimson faces forward, relaxing his body while panting deeply. Man did he ran, he's drenched in his own sweat, a few more droplets are sliding down from his scalp all the way down to his neck. He wipes them off only to feel it slightly sting against his eyes and skin. The guy who helped him descends from above using a grappling hook that… replaced one of his hands, specifically his left hand. While approaching Crimson, he switches his grappling hook to a mechanical hand. The guy who is technically Crimson's partner has blonde spiky hair and sharp amber eyes. He's wearing a blue bandanna that has a yellow sun symbol, a baggy, beige henley shirt that he left unbuttoned, worn out leather trousers, and black leather boots. On his right hand is his weapon, a cutlass, but the handle resembles a barrel of a gun along with the trigger.

"Quite a marathon ya ran there eh?" he asks with a smile and held out his right hand. Crimson takes it then his partner helps him up.

"Yeah, I wouldn't say quite though. That's an understatement." Crimson replies.

"Yer right about that. Name's Sol Regalia. The best pirate on the seas of Remnant." Sol boasts, however Crimson becomes confuse at his claim.

"If you're a pirate, then why do you want to become a hunter?"

"Ah, ya got a good head there. Speaking of yer head, why ya wearing a mask?"

"It's not a mask, it's a visor. I'm colorblind so the visor can help me see better and understand my surroundings. My name is Crimson Pendragon by the way." Crimson thinks it's better to just be out with it after what happened with him and Weiss, and besides there's really no point in hiding it, people will find out eventually.

"Oho! So yer the unlucky chap that got frostbitten by Ice Queen." Or maybe all of them found out during their conversation in the locker room.

"You know her?"

"Knew. I knew her from a life 'fore I became a pirate. While we chat, how bout we hit the seas, shall we first mate?" Sol says while slapping Crimson on the back pushing him onwards to their path to the abandoned temple.

"I don't recall seas nearby Emerald Forest." Crimson asks becoming even more confused.

"It's called a figure of speech, did ya not bloody learn that thing in school nowadays?"

"Of course I learned it!" Crimson's now flustered from embarrassment; he rubs the back of his head as he tries to come up with an excuse. "I just didn't know you meant it literally!" Sol laughs at Crimson's reaction and walks alongside him.

"So I'm guessing there's a long history between you and Weiss?"

"In a way, rather not talk about it anyways. She prolly forgot about me." Sol replies nonchalantly,

"I'm sure that despite what changed over the years, the two of you can reconnect."

"Oh I didn't mean that I knew her on a personal level, let alone friends. We met long time ago and I woodn't say it went well, but she's in good term with my lil' sis so that there is a good thing." Sol fondly says. While looking at him Crimson can tell by the glint in his eyes he and his sister must be very close. "How bout you mate?" Sol asks Crimson, turning his attention to him.

"Not much really. All I can say is that I've been living in Beacon my whole life."

"Really now? Why's that?"

"I'm an orphan. In a way you can say that Professors Ozpin and Goodwitch adopted me as my legal guardians." Sol now has an expression of guilt plastered on his face.

"Sorry bout that mate didn't mean to open any old wounds."

"It's no problem really. We're going to be partners for the next four years. It's only natural we learn more about each other."

"Yer right. Well then, let's not waste any time dilly-dallying. I spy with my lil' eye the temple," Sol points forward, "just beyond those trees right there."

After walking a few feet away, Sol and Crimson emerges from the trees and onto a clearing where abandoned temple rests at the northern part of Emerald forest. They look around the ruins of the temple and see worn out stone pedestals, and on them are black and white chess pieces. Crimson and Sol eyes each one carefully, speculating what makes these pieces so special.

"Ya think these are the relics?"

"I guess so. I mean most of them are missing."

"Which one catches yer eye mate?" Crimson thinks on the question. Honestly, there isn't much to choose from. His favorite chess piece has always been the knight because of how unique it moves about on the board, but there aren't any knight pieces left. The pieces left are: two black queens, one black rook, two white pawns, and one white bishop. Crimson takes one white pawn off of its pedestal.

"Ya like that one?"

"It's my second favorite piece on chess. Sure it's weak at the beginning of the game, but when it reaches the enemy's end of the board, it can transform into a rook, a knight, a bishop, better yet a queen."

"Like an all-rounder type of piece." Sol agrees,

"Exactly, it's versatile."

"Alrighty then, now that we got our relic, let's head on back to Beacon – eh?" Sol stands still, raising his arm slightly, and his hand flat with his fingers stuck together.

"What's wrong?" Crimson whispers,

"Oi! If ya planning on hiding, might as well come out now cuz we know yer out there!" Sol loudly calls out,

"Hey! Are you crazy?! What if that's a Grimm you're calling out?!"

"All the more reason to deal with them now than later mate. Learn that." Sol then switches his robotic left hand into a blade while he holds his cutlass on his right hand. Crimson readies himself with Caliburn default long sword mode.

"Ahhh… We finally made it… We've been walking for hours." Sol and Crimson hears a girl's voice coming from the trees. They see what she looks like once she emerges from the forest. She has short, wavy, red-orange hair that reaches past her shoulders. She wears a red leather jacket with a dirtied white blouse underneath, skin-tight, black slacks, and black flats. Crimson is absolutely smitten with her, Sol can see it and he can't blame him, although the girl's outfit is formal, she dresses it seductively intimidating way. She left a couple of buttons of her dirtied white blouse open showing her cleavage, and her slacks are so tight you can make out the shape of plump buttocks and navel.

Sol slaps Crimson on his back getting his attention. Crimson sees that Sol has this cocky attitude on him, he raises his eyebrows as if to say "Watch and learn".

"Ahoy there! Aren't ya a beauty?" Sol comments before whistling at her, "Ya know, seeing you right now makes me wish I had waited a little longer and never made eye contact with that guy over there." Crimson wishes to react offensively to that, but he has to admit that he feels the same way, "Got a name fishcakes?"

The girl looks at Sol warily before sweetly smiling and saying, "Flattering, but you have to work on your nicknaming there sailor, and even though you wish that you hadn't met your cute partner over there, I'm afraid I'm already taken."

She tilts her head back and calls out, "Jet! The area is clear, you can come out now!" another boy, about Crimson's height and slightly taller than the red-orange haired girl jumps down from the trees. He has messy black hair and bloodthirsty red eyes. He has a deep scar across his left cheek. He wears a black trench coat that has three tails with a dark grey dress shirt and black tie underneath. He also wears black slacks and black dress shoes.

The four of them gather inside the abandoned temple to introduce themselves after the two newcomers pick their relic.

"My name is Terra Cotta," the girl introduce herself first before gesturing to the boy who came with her, "and this is my partner, Jet Locke."

Sol smiles at her and takes her right hand in between his, "Lovely to meet you, name's Sol Regalia and that over there, is Crimson Pendragon."

Terra's partner, Jet, didn't like the closeness between Sol and Terra, so he shoves Sol aside while Crimson catches Sol before he falls. Terra holds Jet back before he causes severe injuries,

"Jet, that's enough! He's just being polite." She chides him,

"What's his problem?" Crimson asks,

"He's just overprotective. Forgive him."

"It's alright Terra, I was expecting that kind reaction from him." Sol just smiles. Crimson inwardly curses to himself how much of an idiot his partner is. If he knew that is going to happen, why the hell did he provoke him?! "But cuz of that, he's a reliable one, if not a bit wild. Almost attacked me like a shark! Keep him close."

Crimson suddenly felt pain on his left eye. His left vision vibrating blood red. It hurts so much that he falls to his knees, his left hand on his visor, and groans in pain, stopping himself from screaming. Sol and Terra kneels in front of him checking for any injuries while Jet stands and stares at Crimson while he is in pain.

"Oi! What's wrong mate?"

"Something's coming! I don't know what but, it feels different from your regular Grimm." Crimson tells Sol,

"How can you tell?" Terra asks,

"I can sense Grimm nearby. It's something I've had ever since I was born." Crimson explains,

"So is it like yer semblance?"

"That's not possible. People don't unlock their aura by themselves when they are born and you can't discover your semblance if you haven't unlocked your aura. So a semblance is out of the question unless you were just exaggerating how you got it." Terra explains,

"It's not my semblance, trust me I checked and honestly, I haven't discovered my semblance… yet."

Jet stands firmly in front of his partner and the other two initiates getting their attentions.

"It's here." He says.

On his right vision, Crimson sees a pair of red eyes glinting but on his left, a shadow still forming its shape. Crimson almost thought it is a Beowulf but dismisses the thought. It is definitely forming a shape of a wolf but it doesn't stand on its hind legs, it crouches on all four of its legs. The size is even bigger than an Alpha Beowulf. Crimson also hears heavy breathing, looking at his companions; none of them seem tired just wary of whatever Grimm will come out on the other side.

'I've… Found… You…' says a whisper that only travels to Crimson's ears, 'Master… come back to us… Mother… needs… us…' The whisper chills Crimson to the bone. He can't help but feel that he heard this whisper before. Probably around the time before he met his Uncle Ozpin and Aunt Glynda. The Grimm finally steps out into the clear day. Crimson takes in its form. Sure enough it's twice as large than your Alpha Beowulf and more terrifying. Its teeth are pointed forward like a shark's; some of them are thin as a needle while some are as wide as jagged rocks. Its fur is as black as night. Giant spikes are placed on its shoulder blade, looks almost as if the wolf is pierced by it. The claws are arched to the point that the ends already dug the ground.

'Do… You… Not… Remember… Me?' The whisper asks. A wave of memories poured into Crimson's head. Crimson clutches his head to prevent it from splitting apart. Crimson doesn't know what is happening to him, it's almost as if the wolf's eyes looks through his to penetrate the window to his soul.

'No… It can't be… It can't be you…' Crimson thinks to himself, but the wolf can somehow hear it and replies,

'Yes… It is I… Master… Fenrir.'


End file.
